DIXFIELD — The Board of Selectmen presented Irene Weld with the Boston Post Cane on Monday evening, almost 90 days after her husband, the previous recipient, died.

“I’m not 100 percent sure, but I believe that this is the first time in our town that we’ve had a husband and wife recipient of the Boston Post Cane,” Town Manager Puiia said. “I’m just so pleased that we’ve been able to have such wonderful people in our community.”

Sitting beside her son and daughter-in-law, Weld, 94, listened as Puiia gave a brief history of the cane.

In 1909, The Boston Post newspaper gave gold-headed ebony canes to the Boards of Selectmen in more than 600 New England towns, requesting that they be presented to the oldest male resident of each town.

“Eventually, they began giving a separate award to women, but in Dixfield, we have one cane that we present to the oldest living resident of the town,” Puiia said. 

Board of Selectmen Chairman Hart Daley told the audience that Weld was born on June 4, 1921, and married Fred Weld on March 12, 1942.

“She retired from G.H. Bass in 1982, and has one son, Bruce, a daughter-in-law, Sheila, and a granddaughter named Jennifer,” Daley said.

Puiia said the previous holder of the cane was Weld’s husband, Fred, who passed away July 30.

Puiia and Daley handed Weld the plaque, and as she stood to accept it, Puiia handed her the cane to hold before it was placed back at the Town Office.

“On this plaque, it says that the cane should be presented to the oldest living resident, but I think in this case, it should also read, ‘Nicest,’” Puiia said as Weld, grinning, shook his hand.

mdaigle@sunmediagroup.net

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